This is a key opportunity to defeat HB 961 and there is a good chance we can do so!

I suggest getting there early, as we will hopefully flood the room and beyond.

After going through the metal detectors, continue straight ahead and go through the glass doors. Make an immediate right, walk down the hall, and make another immediate right to get to Senate Committee Room A.

Here's what the current version of HB 961 does:

Makes possession of a large number of semi-automatic guns, classified as an "assault weapon" by this bill, a felony. This includes many popular rifles, handguns, and shotguns! You can keep any "assault weapons" you currently have, but you can't buy any more. The wording is so poor that you probably won't be able to even fix a broken "assault weapon," as each part is classified as an "assault weapon"! Gun dealers in Virginia won't be able to sell an "assault weapon" or any parts for one to anybody, include to gun owners in other states. This will do severe financial harm to Virginia gun dealers.

Bans magazines that hold more than 12 rounds of ammunition. There is NO grandfathering! Possession of such a magazine (keeping it at home only) after January 1, 2021 will be a Class 1 misdemeanor. However, transporting such a magazine is a felony!

Bans suppressors, making possession of one a felony. You can keep any suppressors you currently have, but you cannot purchase any more and you won't be able to fix them if they break.

Bans bump stocks. Any that you have must be destroyed by January 1, 2021. Possession of one after that date is a felony.

Bans bump stocks. Any that you have must be destroyed by January 1, 2021. Possession of one after that date is a felony.

Click to expand...

Bump stocks are already banned at the federal level. (Possession is a federal felony, because technically it's possessing an unregistered machine gun.) This bill goes beyond bump stocks and bans "trigger activators." It's not clear exactly what that includes, but it may include binary triggers (one shot upon pull of the trigger and another shot upon its release) and trigger cranks. The Virginia Attorney General (Mark Herring) would have a lot of latitude in its implementation.

A. For purposes of this section, "trigger activator" means any device that allows a semi-automatic firearm to shoot more than one shot with a single pull of the trigger by harnessing the recoil energy of any semi-automatic firearm to which it is affixed so that the trigger rests and continues firing without additional physical manipulation of the trigger by the shooter.
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The committee hearings and, later, the floor debate on the bill, are important because what the Senators and Delegates say during these proceedings becomes part of the "legislative history" that courts will look at in future litigation challenging the bill, if it passes. Try to nail them down as to exactly what they mean by the particular language adopted.

From the looks of things -- on the surface -- it looks as if the "trigger activator" provision is merely "making the rubble bounce" and makes something a state felony that is already a federal felony.

Bans suppressors, making possession of one a felony. You can keep any suppressors you currently have, but you cannot purchase any more and you won't be able to fix them if they break.

Click to expand...

Again, the silencer provision (they use that word) is extremely vague and contradictory. "Possession" is not mentioned as a crime, so therefore anything you own on July 1st is grandfathered. Purchase, sale, transfer, importation, or manufacture of silencers would be felonies, but there's a safe harbor proviso that transfers under the federal NFA are OK. If broadly interpreted, this means that the whole provision is moot because transfers that follow the NFA procedures are exempted, while those that don't are already federal crimes. But a narrower interpretation is that only transfers that are pending with ATF on July 1st would be exempted, because "purchase" and "sale" would still be illegal even if "transfer" wasn't. This would be something that the Attorney General and the courts would have to sort out.

...and keep the donations a-comin' to VCDL . It should be bright-line rule obvious (even to Capt. Obvious) at this juncture, their work and importance. And that takes $

REMEMBER...one candidate at the other side, with his own personal security team armed w/ firearms he wants to ban...has already spent in EXCESS of $3MILLION, more than the same # of over 18 voting age adults.

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